peace partners

At risk of repeating myself: Mitt Romney was reported recently telling donors to his campaign that the Palestinian people were not interested in peace. The question to ask is, ‘why not?’ Or we could ask, ‘who benefits from the present situation, Israel or Palestine?’ Two groups benefit, and they are remarkably similar, Zionist extremists and Islamic extremists.

The Zionists benefit because they can use the tensions in the Middle East as cover while they continue their land grab. Islamic extremists can use the situation as a general explanation for being anti-Western. There is a third group in the background, the organisations that manufacture and distribute the means of destruction.

Ask the question ‘who benefits’ the other way round; who has least to gain from the situation ‘as is’? Palestinians and ‘Israeli Arabs’. The latter are discriminated against in Israel ( see my post ‘a Good Read’) whilst Palestinians suffer from food and water shortages and rationing, from economic discrimation through checkpoints and taxation, through health care and educational restrictions, and, just for the record, they are more than 4 times more likely to suffer death or injury from Israeli action than is an Israeli from Palestinian action.

What Israel is demanding from Palestinians even just to negotiate, is complete surrender. What is remarkable is how committed Palestinians are to peace.